1 Automating the Generation of Multimedia Titles * Dimitris Gardelis, Thanasis Hadzilacos, Petros Kourouniotis, Manolis Koutlis and Elina Megalou Computer Technology Institute University of Patras P.O. Box 1122, 26110, Patras, Greece tel. +30 61 220112, 992061, fax: +30 61 222086 e-mail:{gardelis, thh, koyroyp, koutlis, megalou}@cti.gr ABSTRACT GMI 1 is a methodology for the automation of the development of sets of interactive multimedia applications with similar content and structure. The paper presents the methodology and its application to a specific area (tourist point-of-information stations). A set of similar multimedia titles can be defined through a generic title description, callled Model Title Specification. Initially in user-filled forms, the Model Title Specification is transformed into the schema of the object-oriented Title Database. The centerpiece of GMI is the Title Generator which includes an editor for manipulating title descriptions and a code generator which produces source code for the target multimedia platform, in our case CD-I. Keywords: Multimedia information systems, object-oriented design, conceptual modeling, multimedia titles, CD-I. 1. Introduction It has been said that one of the joys of this trade is the ability to automate our own work: compilers, code interpreters, documentation generators and schema translators are just a few examples. During the past few years a lot of computer engineers' time * Presented at the 10 th International Conference on Advanced Science and Technology (ICAST’94), ENTERING THE 21 ST CENTURY-MULTIMEDIA INFORMATION SYSTEMS”, Chicago, USE, March 1994. 1 GMI stands for “Greek Multimedia Initiative'”. It is a cooperative research and development program supported by the General Secretariat of Research and Technology under contract EPET Measure 1.5 number E/13 for a European Union special action program. The GMI partners are: AudioVisual Enterprises (prime contractor), L-Cube S.A., Zenon S.A. and the Computer Technology Institute, an academic research institute of the University of Patras.